The ability to lead becomes incredibly apparent during times of crisis. The 2009 global financial system meltdown is a good case in point. Watching good and bad leaders during times of crisis provides us with lessons on how to act when faced with our own moments of crisis.

As a leader, there are critical attributes that you need to master in order to successfully navigate you’re your team and organization through the turbulence of a crisis into the tranquility of a stable environment.

These attributes are:-

i. Ability to stay calm

Who wants to have a leader who panics in times of crisis? To be an effective leader, you need to learn how to detach yourself from the emotions of the daily ups and downs of life. This is a fundamental characteristic of a strong leader in times of crisis. Consider relinquishing your leadership mantle to someone else if you get struck by bouts of panic during times of crisis

ii. Ability to identify and fix the pressing problem

It is not wise reacting to symptoms of a problem without getting to the problem itself. As a leader, you need to accurately diagnose the root of the problem and fix it. Time is very critical during a crisis. Sometimes there may be need to deal with the symptom because of the present impact. However, you must never cool off and stop at this. You need to dig deep into the root problem and solve it.

It is important to deal as much as possible with facts rather than opinions. When you are trying to project what may happen in the future, consider seeking the opinions of many especially those who have a good track record of understanding how the forces at play are likely to interact.

iii. Ability to consult and seek advice

Conventional wisdom demands that you seek advice especially when a crisis checks in. During this time, unintentional results of your actions can have a more immediate impact. You should draw a line between seeking advice and seeking a consensus. It is advisable that you decide solely rather than jointly. Before making a decision, you need to have the facts about the crisis and the potential aftermath of actions or inactions observed from as many viewpoints as possible.

iv. Ability to think strategically

In time of crisis, thinking about big issues while letting smaller ones look after themselves is absolutely critical. You need to get the right big picture rather than getting the big picture absolutely right. This is the time to make a decision about the right things, of course without forgetting the importance of the executing detail.

v. Ability to be authentic

You can not afford to posture when you are in a crisis. It is time to say what you mean and mean exactly what you say, period. Never let your team take a second guessing what your intentions might be. Clearly say if you are taking a calculated risk or are not sure about the answer. Use clear and simple language as obtuse language has a tendency of leaving people confused besides opening your message to various interpretations.

Be conscious about your body language as well since a feeble look will cast doubt on your level of conviction and ability to see a crisis through.

vi. Ability to communicate

Talk it all to your team. Inform your team about what you know, what you do not know and what you are doing about what you must know. Tell your team about your decisions and why you make them. Reiterate your message as saying it once may at times not be enough. Use all effective mediums as well as different communication styles to ensure that as many people as possible get the correct message.

A crisis is defined as a time of intense difficulty or danger. In the case of diseases, it is the turning point of a disease, when it becomes clear whether the patient will recover or not. It is evident in the definition that a crisis is not a desirable state. One would choose not to have to solve a crisis and a live a crisis-free life but that is not possible. Daily you meet crisis of varying shapes, forms and proportions. Some are individual (affecting you personally) and some are of a national or global coverage such as the ongoing fight with the AIDS epidemic. The goal is to find the quickest and most effective method of bringing the state of affairs back to normal. This alone explains the efforts from every sector of the world, be it donor community, research scientists, governments and corporate to bring a lasting solution to this one type of crisis. Your crisis may not be as prevalent as the epidemic but the fact remains that it is state you would desire to move out of. I have faced crisis after crisis in my life but I have emerged out of every crisis sharper, wiser and more experienced. Some of the crisis I faced taught me endurance, persistence, optimism and courage. While crisis situations have a lot of life lessons, one would not desire to first see a crisis then learn but learn anyhow from other people’s crisis. How does one get out of crisis? I answer the question from what I have learned under crisis below.

The Steps

1. Acknowledge that you have reached crisis point – It is not a sign of failure to acknowledge the state of affairs as it is. After all there is no situation that cannot be turned around either deliberately or by way of miracles. Simply declare that this is crisis level. Failure to acknowledge may derail the exit into normal mode as everyone feels it is business as usual. Make every citizen or employee know the nature of the crisis and how it affects them. Alcoholics that refused to say the statement “I am an alcoholic” fail to move out of alcoholism. Non admittance is living in denial of the facts even though they are as clear as noonday. Your affirmation will then change at a later stage as your affirm the new you. Acknowledgment is for the purpose of finding the help you require.

2. Establish the nature and category of crisis – Who is affected by the crisis? What is the general extent of the crisis? Is it affecting just the households next to you or it has become an epidemic of high proportions. The extent and nature of the crisis determines the response strategy. Life threatening crisis requires faster movement; move by instinct and save the life under threat. By establishing the extent of the crisis you are able to determine the level of reporting back and human resource mobilization to help ease or end the crisis. Every crisis is unique, every problem is different. You will not prescribe the same medication on a persistent migraine as you would on a minor headache.

3. Identify the root causes of the crisis – To know the cause of a disease is certainly half the cure. It does not benefit you to fight flames in a fire as opposed to closing the container that is fueling the fire. Similarly in crisis setups, problems and conflict and anxiety may all be flames. You need to know why the organization or country is where it is. Be frank with the reasons why. If you shy away from the actual reasons it maybe a total waste of valuable time. Put all the cards on the table, undress the crisis breaking it into the individual components that originated and grew the crisis. You will realize that the power of a fire is not high up on the flames but way low at the bottom where it is coming from.

4. Stop Creating Comfort in the Crisis – It is easy to acknowledge you are in a crisis and immediately find coping mechanisms in the crisis. By so doing you make everyone feel as if there is no crisis. It is the same as knowing that a person has a serious cut on the leg and is in excruciating pain then you give them the highest dosage of pain stopper. You may stop the pain momentarily but that does not disqualify the cut. Simply put; you have created temporary comfort in the crisis but you still have to face the real crisis you are hiding under the carpet.

5. Get Ideas from your team – As a leader you may not be the only one to prescribe the way out of the crisis.
You may not be the cause of the crisis after all. Your role is to get everyone to see the same thing and talk the same language. Bring people to a place of unity so that they actually take ownership of their situation. As long as you give yourself the burden of getting everyone out of the crisis, you may easily fight a losing battle as people may delay your exit strategy. Some may be benefitting from the crisis hence they stifle your efforts. A brilliant idea maybe hidden in the most unlikely team member, much lower on the structures of power.

6. Plan your exit from crisis – As discussed above, sometimes the crisis situation maybe a matter of life and death with the going of every minute threatening the life of people, in such a scenario there is no room for board meeting, or consensus. Movement is by instinct not according to an activity planner. Careful planning of the precepts and phases of the exit from crisis is important. Document every step, on each step you need to identify who is responsible and give the person a clear mandate of why their role is important. Get strategic thinkers to test your plan and identify loopholes. A plan is as strong as its weakest point. Test before you plunge or else you waste more time and money. Some solutions make increase the extent of the problem.

7. Get expert advice and help – If you do not have the skills necessary in your team or country, look beyond
your area. Call for specific people with specific competencies to come in. Calling in technocrats with the right experience in dealing with the issues will sometimes cost you less in terms of loss or damage than creating make-shift solutions which in actual fact have expiry dates. You may not have the liberty to experiment or try out amateur level solutions. Specialists are there to provide specialist services. Some of them have studied on the very subject to the highest level of study possible.

8. Revisit your financial priorities – Your crisis may not be related to finance but every crisis has an impact on your finances. You have to prioritize your expenditure in the direction of bring a normal environment back. All payments in line with bringing order and effectiveness are a priority. You may need to make sacrifices that affect a greater majority. This is the reason why everyone must be engaged to take ownership of the problem. As long as it remains the role of leaders to create a miracle out of a solution, followers will always want their luxuries as they may not share or buy-in to what leaders are doing even though it benefits them.

9. Execute your plan – Implementation – Most solutions look workable on paper. They sound good and practical until the real implementation is due. You may have run a pilot of the solution, you may have people’s buy-in and all the necessary plans in writing but if you do not carefully implement all you have purposed, the solution becomes a “nice to have”. Get everyone to account for whatever role they were given. Call for regular meetings to review progress, budgets, human resource gaps etc. Without a follow through, the crisis will rage on.

10. Communicate & Review Progress – You can never be accused of over communication. If anything sometime we put a lot of effort in creating solutions, we implement the solutions and forget to communicate the success stories and even areas where we are failing. Without adequate communication and review of progress, people will easily be discouraged thinking that they are not making any headway in redressing the crisis. Reviews and updates will keep everyone motivated and inspired. In the whole process you need to document everything for others to use the same notes as reference points in the future.

New Jersey has a form of government with a city that many Americans may be unfamiliar. While New Jersey allows various forms of municipal government, the City Council Westwood models, known as the borough form of government of the city, is the most common form of local government that is used in the state.

Under the system of the city council, the borough is served by a mayor and six members of the borough council, all of whom are elected by borough voters. The mayor serves for a term of four years, while the members of the City Council of each period of three years. Two Borough Council seats are for election each year, providing for the election and if you are not sure what Marcus Jeremy will explain the problem in its web.

Westwood borough’s current mayor is John Birkner, Jr., a Democrat whose term expires at the end of 2011. In the 2008 election cycle, the GOP has a strong control of the City Council, and hold all six seats, although the former Republican mayor of support two Democratic candidates. Westwood ability buck the national trend toward Democrats in the last election cycle primarily the result of a nine-point advantage Republicans’ in the registration within the borough – even though most of the area was 57% independent voice clearly favor the Republicans as well.

One of the few areas of New Jersey that lean toward the Republican Party, Westwood chose George W. Bush in 2004. At the local level, however, the last few years have seen some Democrats take a position on the City Council, and is currently the mayor’s office – to make sure that the borough can never be labeled as strictly Republican stronghold.

As with most forms of municipal government, there is often a tension between Westwood mayor and City Council members. Recently, in-fighting between the former mayor and some members of the Council of the Republic is one example of a higher published in recent years.